White 2006 Honda Civic EX Sedan; w00t!

Posted January 25, 2006, 8:30 p.m.

So, on Sunday, we put in a request with the USAA Price Negotiation Service to find us a white 2006 Honda Civic EX Sedan. They called me yesterday with a deal through Hendrick Honda Woodbridge (several hundred below the list price—not bad, given that they’re in high demand and are usually selling at full price) and told me to arrange the purchase with the dealer, since they didn’t have one in white on the lot and would have to bring it in.

So I called Hendrick yesterday afternoon to set everything up, and—surprise of surprises—they found one at another local Honda dealer and had the car on their lot by 7:30 last night. We arrived around 8, spend a long time doing paperwork, and were on our way the happy owners of a brand new Civic.

It has to go back on Monday to have some accessories put in (the iPod adaptor, cargo net, and moonroof visor) and then we’ll be set! I tried to take some pictures with the camera on my phone, but they didn’t turn out too well . . . so pics will come later.

Regardless, the car is awesome. I’m still playing around with all the little gadgets and figuring out how everything works. It drives great, and I love the dash (very modern and digital ;-)). I’m really looking forward to the iPod connection kit, so I can control the iPod directly from the audio controls (on the steering wheel and on the stereo).

Although I’m not liking this whole ‘break-in period’ thing . . . no hard acceleration until 600 miles, no using cruise control ’til 1,500 ~sigh~. You get a new car, and then you have to be all gentle with it. Where’s the fun in that?

So, we’re officially done with big purchases for now. We had a series of major things that we have planned for and executed over the last year, and now they’re pretty much finished. No other big purchases are scheduled in the immediate future, so now we can focus on putting money aside for much-later things (a house? ;-)).

Scott Bradford has been building web sites and using them to say what he thinks since 1995, which tended to get him in trouble with power-tripping assistant principals at the time. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University, but has spent most of his career (so far) working on public- and private-sector web sites. He is not a member of any political party, and brands himself an ‘independent constitutional conservative.’ In addition to holding down a day job and blogging about challenging subjects like politics, religion, and technology, Scott is also a devout Catholic, gun-owner, bike rider, and music lover with a wife, two cats, and a dog.